The Research Education/Training Core of the NCMHD Research Center of Excellence at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) is seeking continued funding to increase the number of junior faculty, postdoctoral scientists, graduate and undergraduate students, and pre-college trainees, from or serving groups that experience health disparities, that pursue biomedical research careers. Participants in the training core will have the opportunity to enhance their academic, professional and career development. Research development of junior NCCU faculty and postdoctoral trainees will be through participation in pilot and full projects supported by the Research Core of NCCU's NCMHD Center. Funding will be used to improve the quality of undergraduate and graduate programs in biology, chemistry, and other related scientific disciplines as well as attract more minority students to pursue scientific in health disparity areas. The training program is designed to provide unique and state of the art research experiences for NCCU students by providing special didactic and nontraditional learning activities and affording opportunities to work on research projects at key points in their academic careers. A key feature is the integration of research into all aspects of undergraduate and graduate science education. This will continue to be accomplished by providing support for highly qualified undergraduate and graduate students to conduct biomedical research preparing them for entry into the work force or for continuation on to a professional degree. High school students, community college students, and NCCU undergraduates and graduate students will continue to be recruited using the following Specific Aims: 1) Recruit and train postdoctoral fellows from groups that experience health disparities as well as develop junior faculty that serve students from these groups. 2) Train high school, community college and NCCU science undergraduate (pre-freshmen) students through a summer residency program emphasizing health disparities research. 3) Provide health disparities research experiences for NCCU undergraduate and graduate students during the academic year and summer. 4) Recruit and develop NCCU M.S. students to make a seamless transition to Ph.D. programs in the biomedical sciences at WFUSM and NCSU via BRIDGE funding mechanisms or at other partner institutions. 5) Develop an assessment tool to evaluate the effectiveness of the Training Core of NCCU's Center.